Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Let me start this post off by rewinding to last year on this day, January 30th.

Ryan said he wanted to take me to dinner, so we went up to the Cheesecake Factory. As we started diving into our appetizers, he smiled and said to me, "So... there is a reason that I took you out to dinner tonight... do you know what today is?" Immediately I stop in the midst of shoving some nachos into my mouth, my eyes widen, my mind is scrambling for any ideas of what special date I totally forgot about.

If anyone knows me, they know that my memory is terrible. Honestly, the worst. But it must be something big that I forgot about if he took the time to take me out to a nice dinner just in honor of this special event that just happened to slip my mind?!?! As I slowly reversed the chip out of my mouth, I awkwardly say that I have no idea what today could be, and to please tell me before I have a panic attack about forgetting such a special, important date.

My sweet husband is patient with my horrible memory and my quite often panic attacks, and he said, "8 years ago, we had our first kiss!" . . . . . . . I just looked at him with my mouth open... "wwha ..uh...what? How in the world do you remember that??"

I guess he had remembered the exact date all these years of our first kiss back in the 9th grade.. Is he even human?!?

I spent the next few minutes freaking out about how he could remember such a date, and feeling terrible that I would never ever remember a specific date like that because of my horrible memory... but I just thought it was the cutest thing in the world. We ended up getting some cheesecake after our dinner and told the waitress that it was our anniversary. She smiled and asked how many years we had been married, and we laughed and said it was the anniversary of our first kiss and I joked with her about how my husband totally caught me off guard with remembering the day. She brought out a plate with "Happy anniversary" written on it with a candle. Best night ever.

Fast forward to today.... January 30th! 9 years since our first smooch while we were playing hide and seek in my parents basement... our magical moment was while hiding underneath a beanbag together. And thanks to my amazingly thoughtful husband who has a memory like none other, we can now celebrate it every year.

So of course I had to document this special day. . . . .so today at work, I G-chatted Ryan from a floor away..

Photo cred to our co-worker/friend/neighbor Annie Pugmire...and we are glad that she didn't throw up from all this mushyness.

I just had to share the outtakes of our awkward public display of affection reenactment.

"So, do we just kiss for the picture?"

"Uhh Sure, why not?"

(Ryan was such a good sport ;)

ahh finally got it. :)

Are you guys sick of reading all these cheesy love stories yet? sorrynotsorry! I love my cheesy love life :)

I hope everyone had a good weekend!
I am starting off with this picture of Ellie.... 99% of the time, Ellie HATES getting her picture taken. She literally screams, "NO!!" and darts the other way when she sees a camera point in her direction. But this one particular morning, she was so sweet and said to Ryan, "Daddy, take my picture with my dolly" and flashed this innocent looking grin.

HAHA this picture kills me.

Saturday morning, me and my beautiful friend Hannah went and did a film photoshoot! It was held at the BEAUTIFUL Cook's greenhouse in Orem, and I can't wait to get the film prints back! (these below were just taken with iphones) Photographers were Meikel Reece and Ashley Thalman. Hair and Makeup done by Nateal at Relik Salon.

here is Hannah getting her makeup done by Nateal

Isn't the greenhouse lovely for a shoot?

I loved the sparkly backdrop that they used

After the shoot, Ryan and I took his little sisters rock climbing! Ryan killed it, but me on the other hand....didn't do so well.

Supposedly you need some kind of upper body strength for rock climbing?...

Then we hit up Cubby's in Provo, Utah. Has anyone eaten at that place?? Holy Guacamole, it is good. Their Tri Tip steak salad and sandwich are to die for..and their sweet potatoe fries?! Definitely worth breaking diets for. Check out Cubby's here.

And last but not least, I must talk about the dumpage of snow that we are getting her in Utah! It is insane. Ellie loves it, and she just looks so cute in her beanie and coat...

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

I have some good reasons for neglecting my poor blog lately... I got a new job!

---I sadly left my awesome job at Netdocuments, but got recruited to work at a bitchin' business calledAcumen Learning. (I can say 'bitchin' because it is my father-in-law's company, and Bitchin' is an accepted word in the Cope household.) I was so so so so sad to leave my Netdocs family of 3 years, but am really liking this new change with working at Acumen Learning.

--Just a little background of what Acumen Learning does.... Remember THIS POST about my father-in-law, Kevin? He wrote a New York Times best selling book called, "Seeing the Big Picture." He founded Acumen Learning about 10 years ago, and Kevin and his team travel all over the world, training businesses on how to be better as a company. It's awesome stuff!
Find out how your company can build their Business Acumen.

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---With my new job, my hours are different. I have to be at work at 7AM. Yikes! So Ryan is a stay-at-home-dad until about 9am when he comes into work. Oh, and did I mention that we work together? :) Best thing ever...... anywho, because I have to leave my house at about 6:45 every morning, I don't get to spend time with Ellie girl because she is still asleep by the time that I leave! It has been a hard adjustment, but because I come into work earlier, I get to leave work earlier in the day. I can use that time to go to the gym, run errands, or go pick up Ellie early from Daycare. :) With that being said, I have been M.I.A. and anti-social because after a long day of work, I just want to come home to my two loves! Do you blame me?? They are pretty awesome.....

--At my new job, I help with coordinating travel-- booking hotel rooms, car rentals, flights, etc. and I also run sales reports, go grocery shopping for the office, and I am now in charge of being the author of the Acumen Learning blog. Fun stuff, right? I feel very blessed to be able to have such a great job!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Alixann Loosle has taken pictures of me & Ellie, and also took the wedding photos of mine and Ryan's wedding-- I just LOVE her style! I have made made a pinboard for photos that I like on her blog, check out the board HERE. and check out Alix's blog HERE

Friday, January 4, 2013

This post is a little late, but I wanted to share with you a video that I made of our Holiday festivities!

Christmas Eve at the Cope's house is always a blast...we induldged ourselves with king crab legs, steak, and shrimp. A sweet tradition in their household! This year, Ryan's parents invited my dad over for dinner which was great! It was fun to have him there with us. After dinner we opened our matching pajamas that Mimi & Papa gave us, and wore them for the next week straight. . . .just kidding, but really, I think Ryan, Ellie, and I wore ours for like 2 1/2 days straight. ha Oh the joyous holiday season!

This year, Ryan & I wanted to spend our Christmas morning together with just the two of us and Ellie, in our new home! It was our first official Christmas together as a family, and it was the best. Ever. Really simple, and only a handful of wrapped presents under the tree. But it was perfect. We had Ellie sit at the top of the stairs with her bedhead and sleepy eyes, to take her picture before she went downstairs to see what Santa had brought.

With every present that she opened, she would exclaim, "This is what I have always wanted for Christmas!" It was the cutest thing.
Santa brought Ellie her first bike! She is still learning how to pedal, but it's hard to get much practice when there is a foot of snow outside! She also got a ballerina dress, which was what she wanted.

But the best part about my Christmas was opening a different gift from him....he found a picture of my mother that I had never seen before, and he framed it for me. I cried! ha Like a boob. On Christmas. He is the sweetest husband in the world.

After our house, we headed to Ryan's parent's house. They spoiled us too much! I am so grateful for them, for all that they do for us. They truly are the best Mimi & Papa out there!

Then we headed to my dad's house with my side of the family. We had to rush to have Ellie open her presents before she had to leave to go with her dad for the day, so that was kind of a bummer! But we are going to have to get used to splitting up the holidays, because it will happen every year :(

After Christmas, we had lazy days, ski days and we stayed up at the cottage for New Years Eve. We are so lucky to be able to get to do the things that we do, and have the amazing families that we have!

I felt very blessed this holiday season for Ryan and Ellie in my life.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

December flew by!.... and with lots of Ellie quotes every now and then.

This girl is so hilarious and definitely entertains us with her random jibber jabber!

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We went and saw Santa at the mall and the second she saw him she squealed, "OHHhhh! He is SO CUTE!"

Ellie was wearing her Skeleton jammies and while looking at herself in the mirror said, "Oh hello Ellie Skellie!"

Ellie woke up to find Connie the Elf (she named him herself....) on top of the t.v. She exclaimed,"Oh, what the heck?!?!"

Ellie was going potty on the big potty, and she passed some gas... she smiled and said, "I just love my toots"

"Katy Perry is my best friend and I want to dance to her song!!"

I put Ellie in time-out, and she was NOT happy about it... She started yelling her version of profanities at me. "CHOCOLATE POOP!.......CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM POOP!!" When Daddy put her in time out a different time, she yelled at him, " POOPY DADDY BUM!!"

"You cleaned my toy room momma?! It looks SO lovely!"

"Daddy? Will you tell me the story of the three little pigs and Jesus?"

"Baby Jesus is so cute! I want to meet her someday."

We got a baby sitter while we went out, and she said to the sitter, "You're my honey bear"

Ryan's little sister's name is Noelle...and one night I asked Ellie if she wanted me to sing her a new Christmas song called The First Noel. Every night after that, she asked me, "Can you sing me Noelle's first birthday song?"

Ellie and Papa (Ryan's dad) were sitting down on the couch to watch a movie together, and Ellie said to him, "I'm gonna cuddle on you, little guy!"

Ellie accidentally kicked Ryan in the face...and she just shrugged her shoulders and said, " My foot just gave you a little kiss, Daddy"

It was really sunny and bright one day, and Ellie said to me, "Mommy, I want the sun to leave me alone."

Ellie- "What's that, Mommy?"

Me- "It's Diet Coke"

Ellie- "Oh, it's for Diarrhea?"

We were driving past Trafalga mini golf course that has a big tower in it, and Ellie points and yells, "OH! I want to get married in that castle! And you can be the King, Daddy! And you can be the Queen, mommy!"

While eating cake, Ellie was singing Santa Clause is Coming To Town..... Her version: "He sees you when you're eating cake, he knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!"

"Jesus is sooo handsome! Like Daddy!"

The whole Cope family was watching a movie in the basement, and Ellie comes down the stairs and yells, "It smells like stinky foots in here!"

"Maybe Santa will bring me some diamonds!"

Ellie had just woken up and was sitting on the stairs, covering her eyes and said, "My eyes are so bright! My eyes are so bright!!"Ellie was with Ryan and she started Whining, "I want to see mommy...I want to see mommy..." Then she immediately stopped and said, "That's not how we get what we want....." --(Whenever she whines, we always say that to her. ha)